Isis changing the sex of Iphis. Engraving by Bauer

According to Greek Mythology and the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote about transformations in his Metamorphoses, Iphis (or Iphys) was the daughter of Telethusa and Lictus. Lictus had already threatened to kill his pregnant wife's child if it wasn't a boy. Telethusa despairs, but is visited in the middle of the night by the Egyptian goddess Isis, attended by Anubis and Apis, who assures her that all will be well. When Telethusa gives birth to Iphis, she conceals her daughter's sex from her husband and raises her daughter as a boy. Iphis falls in love with another girl, Ianthe. Iphis is deeply in love and prays to Juno to allow her to marry her beloved. When nothing happens, her mother Telethusa brings her to the temple of Isis and prays to the goddess to help her daughter. Isis responds by transforming Iphis into a man. The male Iphis marries Ianthe and the two live happily (and heterosexually) ever after. Their marriage is presided over by Juno, Venus, and Hymenaios, the god of marriage. Ovid, Metamorphoses, IX, 666-797. Image File history File links Bauer_-_Isis_Iphis. ... Image File history File links Bauer_-_Isis_Iphis. ... The Oricoli bust of Zeus, King of the Gods, in the collection of the Vatican Museum. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... Telethusa: In Greek Mythology, the Mother of Iphis, a girl raised as a boy to spare her fathers wrath, and transformed into a man by the Egyptian goddess Isis in order to marry her true-love, the maiden Ianthe. ... Isis is a goddess in Egyptian mythology. ... Anubis is the Greek name for the ancient jackal-headed god of the dead in Egyptian mythology whose hieroglyphic is more accurately spelled Anpu (also Anup, Anupu, Wip, Ienpw, Inepu, Yinepu, or Inpw). ... Apis can refer to the following: Apis — An Egyptian god Apis — A Bee genus Apis — In Greek mythology a prophet. ... Origin: Greek. ... IVNO REGINA (Queen Juno) on a coin celebrating Julia Soaemias. ... Marble Venus of the Capitoline Venus type, Roman (British Museum) Venus was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love and beauty, the rough equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. ... In Greek mythology, Hymenaeus (also Hymenaeus, Hymenaues, or Hymen; Ancient Greek: Ὑμέναιος) was a god of marriage ceremonies, inspiring feasts and songs (like wedding hymns, or epithalamia). ...

Ovid also introduces us to another character from Greek mythology, also named Iphis, a Cypriot shepherd who loved a woman named Anaxarete. Anaxarete scorned him and Iphis killed himself in despair. Because Anaxarete was still unmoved, Aphrodite changed her to stone. Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIV, 802. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... In Greek mythology, Anaxarete was a Cypriot maiden who refused the advances of a shepherd named Iphis. ... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 Aphrodite (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη, pronounced in English as and in Ancient Greek as ) was the Greek goddess of love, lust, beauty, and sexuality. ...

As written in Homer's The Iliad, Iphis was also a name given to the mistress of Patroclus, Achilles' companion-in-arms. Homer (Greek Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and aoidos (singer) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... The Iliad is, with The Odyssey, one of the two major Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, a blind Ionian poet. ... A cup depicting Achilles bandaging Patroklos arm, by Sosias. ... The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War...

The 17th-century publisher Humphrey Moseley once claimed to possess a manuscript of a play based on the Iphis and Ianthe story, by William Shakespeare. Scholars have treated the claim with intense skepticism; the play has not survived. Humphrey Moseley (d. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

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